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Gabriel Garza (film)
Gabriel Garza is a 2011 American 3D computer-animated comedy film produced by Gingo Animation for Universal Pictures. Based on the Gingo animated television series of the same name, it is the fourteenth feature film in the Universal Animated Features canon, as well as the first installment in the studio's reboot franchise of the original series. It was directed by series creator Geo G. and written by Gary Hall, Dan Fogelman, and Jordan Roberts from a story by Geo, Audel LaRoque, Michael Wildshill, and Hall, and stars an ensemble voice cast consisting of Zachary Gordon, Elijah Wood, Alexander Gould, Jonathan Morgan Heit, Hayden Panettiere, Frankie Jonas, Peter Dinklage, Alan Tudyk, and Chloë Grace Moretz. In the film, Gabriel, Roge, Leno, and Cole must band together as brothers in order to stop Vio and his plans for world domination. Universal had plans for a computer-animated Gabriel Garza film entitled Gabriel Garza: Unleashed before the release of The Gabriel Garza Movie in 2002. However, Unleashed was canceled shortly after the latter's release, but the project was revived in early 2008, with Geo G. announcing that they wanted to create a film that would "transcend generations". The film was originally developed under the title Life of Gabriel Garza; in February 2009, it was confirmed that the film would be instead a reboot simply titled Gabriel Garza. In the hopes of attracting a larger audience with better-known actors, none of the cast from the original series reprised their roles in the film. The music for the film was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh and James L. Venable. Gabriel Garza premiered at the Gibson Amphitheatre on June 18, 2011, and was released in the United States on July 8, 2011. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its animation, humor, visual style, and vocal performances, particularly of Gordon, Wood, Panettiere, and Dinklage, although some criticized the absence of the original voice cast. The film earned a total of $645 million worldwide against a budget of $85 million, making it the seventh highest-grossing film of 2011. It was later followed by two sequels: 2014's Gabriel Garza 2 and 2017's Gabriel Garza 3. Plot Coming soon! Voice cast :Further information: List of Gabriel Garza characters *Zachary Gordon as Gabriel Garza, a kind, curious, affectionate, intelligent 11-year-old boy with a great sense of humor **Genesis Miles Wildshill voices a 5-year-old Gabriel. *Elijah Wood as Roge Garza, Gabriel's oldest brother who is somewhat overprotective **Jonathan Wildshill voices 8-year-old Roge *Alexander Gould as Leno Garza, Gabriel's middle brother with an attitude **Andrew Hall voices 7-year-old Leno *Jonathan Morgan Heit as Cole Garza, Gabriel's younger brother *Hayden Panettiere as Claire Jones, a beautiful and trustworthy girl who is Gabriel's love interest. **Ava Acres voices 5-year-old Claire *Frankie Jonas as Jan Soto, Gabriel's best friend. *Peter Dinklage as Vio, a world domination-obsessed mastermind who is Gabriel's rival and arch-nemesis. *Sarah Jessica Parker as Christine Garza, Gabriel's mother. *Jack McBrayer as Marvin Garza, Gabriel's father. *Alan Tudyk as Loy Garza, the brothers' uncle and scientist and inventor. *Chloë Grace Moretz as Tam Williams, an irritating student and Claire's best friend whom Gabriel is trying to avoid. *Alex Borstein as Matilda Jones, Claire's mother. *Jim Cummings as Don Jones, Claire's father. Cummings previously provided the voice of Don (as well as Vio and various characters) in the original series. *Kari Wahlgren as Mrs. Picksit, Gabriel's teacher. *Ariel Winter as Mallory, a friend of Claire. *Geo G. and Michael Wildshill as the elves, tiny creatures originally created by Loy. *Gary Hall as Principal Shiggens, the principal of the school. *Nick Petok and Jeremy Shada as Malcolm and Jeffrey respectively, the two boys who make fun of Gabriel. *Corey Burton and Rob Carpenter as Mikey and Joe respectively, Vio's assistants. *Michael Gough as Clef, one of Vio's henchmen. *Dee Bradley Baker as Nob, Vio's pet crocodile-like creature. Additional voices *Chris Abazzi *Isabella Acres *Alexander Bates *Ava Benavente *Charlie Bright *Ranjani Brow *Rob Carpenter *June Christopher *Cooper Cowgill *David Cowgill *Makenna Cowgill *Debi Derryberry *Terri Douglas *Dan Fogelman *Don Fullilove *Geo G. *Jackie Gonneau *Emily Hahn *Gary Hall *Bridget Hoffman *William Jennings *Amy McNeill *Scott Menville *Edie Mirman *Jonathan Nichols *Paul Pape *Gregory Perler *Lynwood Robinson *Fred Tatasciore *Marcelo Tubert *Joe Whyte *Michael Wildshill *Skye Wildshill *Dave Zyler Production In 2001, Universal Pictures announced plans for another Gabriel Garza feature film, with the intention of it being animated in CGI at its feature animation department rather than using traditional animation. Writers Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman were hired by Universal to write the script for the film; eventually, Bencich and Friedman wanted the film to feature a "more experienced" Gabriel Garza. Bencich and Friedman's script, titled Gabriel Garza: Unleashed, had Vio kidnapping Claire Jones, while he and his henchmen plan to make a machine to destroy Sinking Spring and rebuild it as Vio's new empire. While searching on the Internet, Gabriel finds out that Vio also plans for world domination, which leads Vio to take over every country around the world. Fearing the world's destruction, Gabriel sets out on an adventure with Roge, Leno, Cole, Loy, the Elves, and Jan Soto to rescue Claire and stop Vio. At the same time, Claire meets other people whom Vio created until they were refused to follow Vio. After the release of The Gabriel Garza Movie in 2002, however, Universal canceled production on Gabriel Garza: Unleashed due to the former being less successful at the box office than it had expected. After the cancellation of Unleashed, Gabriel Garza creator Geo G. regarding the future of the Gabriel series on an interview in August 2004, he said, "I don't have anything official to announce, but I can speak as an individual, I love Gabriel Garza, and I love those other guys I created. And I would love to find a way to bring him back if we could." Michael Wildshill, former co-founder of Gingo and CEO of Universal Feature Animation, has said that he would love to see a revival of the original Gabriel television series or even a full-blown reboot. Debi Derryberry, the original voice of Gabriel Garza, said she is hopeful that Gingo will "bring Gabriel back to their glory days and that the character is still very dear to fans between 18–49 years". In May 2006, Gingo revealed through an IGN interview that they would possibly revive both series of Gabriel Garza as well as Hatty. In September 2006, however, Wildshill stated in an interview with Ain't It Cool News that Gingo does not miss working on either series and has no intention of bringing them back to life. Despite this, Terry Ward stated that the studio would love to return to Gabriel Garza but doesn't see it as viable. Geo G., Audel LaRoque, Michael Wildshill, Gary Hall and Steve Samono visited the house where Geo first pitched Gabriel Garza, and came up with the story for the film over a weekend in 2006; LaRoque then wrote a treatment. A computer-animated film based on Gabriel Garza, under the working title Life of Gabriel Garza, was confirmed by Universal and Gingo Animation on February 1, 2008. Geo G. was announced as director, with Gary Hall, Dan Fogelman and Jordan Roberts writing the film's screenplay. Eventually, DreamWorks Animation's Teresa Cheng was pitched in to assist with the production. The film's original release date on December 3, 2010, was also announced. Geo, who had been working with the writers and story development artists on the film since mid-2007, said he felt pressure to avoid creating "the first dud" for Gingo. In the summer of 2008, there were claims that the film was going to be a reboot. In October 2008, IGN reported the title of the film would be simply Gabriel, while ComingSoon.net reported it would be Gabriel Garza the following December. On February 23, 2009, Universal officially confirmed that the film would be indeed a reboot and was retitled simply as Gabriel Garza. It was also announced that the original voice cast—Debi Derryberry, Rob Paulsen, E.G. Daily, Kath Soucie, Billy West, Doug Lawrence, Charlie Adler, Jim Cummings, and Jeff Bennett—from the Gabriel Garza series will be entirely replaced by better-known actors due to the hopes of attracting a larger audience, akin to what Universal did to the voice cast of BJ and Wally (2006), in which Geo G. directed. In September 2009, Gabriel Garza was pushed back from December 3, 2010, to July 8, 2011 (the scheduled release date for Universal's Plucky Chicken). According to Michael Wildshill, the primary reason for the rescheduling was to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the original Gabriel Garza television series. In November 2009, Zachary Gordon, known for his role in Diary of a Wimpy Kid, was announced to play the voice of Gabriel Garza, taking the place of Gabriel's original voice actress Debi Derryberry; in addition to Gordon, Elijah Wood, Alexander Gould, Jonathan Morgan Heit, Hayden Panettiere, Frankie Jonas, Peter Dinklage, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jack McBrayer, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Alan Tudyk have also joined the cast. Derryberry, Rob Paulsen and Jim Cummings claimed that they had not been contacted about the decision to recast their roles. However, Cummings was revealed to be reprising his role as Don Jones, Claire's father, while Derryberry voiced a minor role via additional voices in the film. During the initial development stages of the film, Universal revisited their work from the studio's abandoned Unleashed project and found that though they could open the old files for the character models, they were unable to edit them; this resulted in them recreating the models from scratch. Erica Rivinoja did an uncredited rewrite of the script. Release Marketing * The film's first teaser trailer was released with Treasure Justice on March 5, 2010, and was also shown before Diary of a Wimpy Kid, How to Train Your Dragon, Sea Life, Shrek Forever After, Toy Story 3, and Despicable Me. * The first full-length trailer was attached as an exclusive sneak peek and a first footage on November 3, 2010, and was shown before Megamind, Tangled, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Tron: Legacy, Yogi Bear, Jimmy & Sam Revisited and Gulliver's Travels. * A second teaser was released on March 2, 2011, followed by a second full-length trailer on March 3, and was attached to films such as Rango, Mars Needs Moms, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Hop, Rio, and Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil. A huge amount of merchandise was made for Gabriel Garza, such as toys and figurines. Universal teamed up with several major companies to promote the film, including McDonald's, who included 8 toys in their Happy Meals featuring the main characters, and Airheads, who made limited-edition flavors "The Elf Flavor" and "Gabriel's Strawberry Taste". A contest, which ended in early May 2011, allowed fans to submit ideas for flash animations to promote the release of the film. The winning idle idea "Gabriel's Catch" was unveiled on June 4, 2011. TV Spots aired between June 14 And July 8 of 2011 Home media Gabriel Garza was released in the United States and Canada on DVD and Blu-ray on December 6, 2011, with a standalone single-disc DVD release being released on that same day. The release included a new short film titled Game Boys. The film was re-issued on Blu-ray on June 17, 2014. It includes a movie ticket to its sequel Gabriel Garza 2. It was re-issued again on Blu-ray on February 21, 2017. Video game A video game based on the film was published by THQ and released on June 21, 2011 for the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360. Soundtrack Reception Critical reception Gabriel Garza has received positive reviews from critics. Based on 187 reviews, the film holds an approval rating of 74% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 6.2/10, with the consensus stating "Gabriel Garza rides the simplicity of the 1991 Saturday morning cartoon to grand effect, and the final result is an emotionally effective, visually stunning, and wholly witty adaptation that will satisfy both children and nostalgic adults." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has an average score of 61 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Box office The film grossed $28,368,836 on its opening day (Friday, July 8, 2011), being released in 4,200 theaters. The film grossed $261,754,077 in North America and $383,546,875 in other countries, with a total gross of $645,300,952 worldwide, making it the seventh highest-grossing film of 2011. The film is currently the tenth highest-grossing Universal animated film behind Minions, Paradoria, Despicable Me 3, Computeropolis: The Deep Web, Imagimals, Despicable Me 2, Computeropolis 2, Gabriel Garza 2, The Secret Life of Pets, Lix, Gabriel Garza 3, Computeropolis 3, and Computeropolis. Accolades Coming soon! Sequels :Main articles: Gabriel Garza 2 and Gabriel Garza 3 A sequel titled Gabriel Garza 2 was released on July 2, 2014. It was directed again by Geo G., written by Geo, Dan Fogelman, Erica Rivinoja and Brian Lynch, and produced by Teresa Cheng and John Cohen. Zachary Gordon, Elijah Wood, Alexander Gould, Jonathan Morgan Heit, Hayden Panettiere, Frankie Jonas and Alan Tudyk reprised their roles as Gabriel, Roge, Leno, Cole, Claire, Jan and Loy, respectively. New cast members include Isla Fisher as Lily Stampla, Jake T. Austin as Lester Stampla, David Tennant as Donnie Stampla, and Rob Corddry as Mr. Leek. In September 2014, Universal announced a planned third film titled Gabriel Garza 3 to follow Gabriel Garza 2, with a release date set for March 3, 2017. Other media Media In June 2011, a manga version of Gabriel Garza was made by Hiromi Yamafuji and distributed in Kodansha's Monthly Shōnen Rival magazine in Japan; the manga was published in English by Tokyopop. Television specials Coming soon! Television series Transcripts Main To see the main transcript of the film, click here. Trailers To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.